Rav Elimelech Biderman cites a letter written by Rav Yitzchok Hutner as an example of true chizuk that inspires us when we are down, that uplifts and strengthens us:
Often, when we study the biographies of Gedolim and tales of Tzaddikim, we imagine that they simply sprang up and appeared as accomplished Tzaddikim with no blemishes, imperfections or struggles. We do not realize that the opposite is true – that we are adopting a false notion by skipping over the entire portion of their lives that contains the tales of growth, stumbling, struggle and sheer failure. The difference between them and us, teaches the Pachad Yitzchok (Vol.1 Igros 128) is not that we struggle and fail and they did not. On the contrary, the difference is that they grew and achieved and got up and continued – even after failures and struggles. They were strengthened by adversity – but we give up.
In fact, it is not the struggles and failures that separate and contrast us – those very struggles and failures are where we find the greatest common denominator. It is in the struggles and failures where we are most similar to and most resemble the Gedolim and Tzaddikim! We all praise and wonder at the Chofetz Chaim’s mastery of his tongue and purity of his speech – but who knows the battles he waged, the failures and struggles that that Tzaddik went through before he reached his lofty level and overcame his Yetzer Hora? And this is just one example from among thousands!
The result of such mistaken assumptions is that when bright, healthy, strong-willed individuals find themselves faced with failures, difficulties, obstacles and struggles, they imagine that they –and only they – are the losers and failures, that only such lowly, despicable people such as they struggle with the kinds of desires and passions that they deal with. Truthfully, we can tell them, “We sympathize and empathize with your pain and suffering, but you must know that that pain and suffering is what ultimately builds and shapes you and engenders growth and greatness.”
This is the path leading to gadlus. Some people think that Shlomo HaMelech’s message, in declaring that a Tzaddik falls seven times and gets up (Mishlei 24:16), is that he rises again despite his failures. This is a mistake. What the wisest of men was saying was that through his failures he rises again! The seven falls of the Tzaddik are themselves what create his meteoric rise to great heights! So do not imagine the Godol and Tzaddik with a pure Yetzer; rather remember that he too has a Yetzer Hora that he overcame. This is what you have in common with the Gedolim and Tzaddikim – and this is what you can also do to strive to reach greatness yourself.
